Lead singer of Neon Trees and life-long Mormon Tyler Glenn has revealed that he is gay. The singer, aged 30, spoke to Rolling Stone about his complicated relationship with his religion and the difficult process of coming out to his family and bandmates, before posting a message onto his social media affirming his sexuality. "Yes. I am a happy and healthy Mormon gay pop star," he wrote on Twitter. "I don't know what it all means, but I'm ok with it."

Published in the latest issue of Rolling Stone, the star described how he came to terms with being gay. "I've always felt like I'm an open book, and yet obviously I haven't been completely," he tells Caryn Ganz in the issue, due for release this week. Glenn, who fronts the new wave pop act, from Provo, Utah, described his earliest recollections of recognising his sexuality. "I had my crushes on guys throughout high school, but it was never an overwhelming thing until my 20s," he says. "Then I'd be dating girls and in love with my straight friend and it was the worst feeling in the world."

Speaking about his religion's notoriously opposed stance on homosexuality, the singer said: "We were always taught, and I hate this word, 'tolerance'," he says, before describing how his feelings were triggered by events surrounding Prop 8, a case which involved the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spending approximately $22m on fighting same-sex marriage. The singer also addressed how he was inspired by recent athletes and cultural figures who have been open about their sexuality.

"I really love all of the sports figures that are coming out recently," he says. "I appreciated (that) Michael Sam was like, 'I want to be able to go to the movies and hold hands with my boyfriend.' Even hearing him say 'boyfriend,' I was just like, that's cool."

Posting a further message onto Facebook, Glenn wrote an impassioned statement about his need to come out amid the creation of Neon Trees' new album. "But it was last summer, writing songs for the new album, being so fed up with "hiding" and being so ready to be "free" that I poured my heart out into music more than I'd ever had before. Music indeed was my first love. Not a boy. It was music that I had always had a torrid love affair with. I felt I owed him, the music, or her, the song. I had to be honest with that relationship."

"It was the moment I let myself write about the years spent in falling for my straight friend or the song I let myself write about thinking it was OK to be alone forever because it was better than explaining myself."

Glenn finished his post by urging others to be honest about their feelings, regardless of religious beliefs. "Come out as a wanderer. Come out as a questioner. One day it won't matter. But it still does. Come out as YOU. That's all I really can say. That's what I'd say to me at 21, the scared return Mormon missionary who knew this part of himself but loved God too. You can do both. Don't let anyone tell you you can't."

Neon Trees' third album, entitled Pop Psychology, is set to be released on 22 April.